• NGMA India

    Jamini Roy

    Accession No . 3083 Artist Name. Jamini Roy Title. Santhal Dancer Medium. Pen and ink on paper Size. 10.8 x 11.8 cm

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    It is interesting to see from the hundreds of sketches and drawings in the NGMA collection, how Roy broke down the figure to the essential form that goes into its making and then synthesised it to suggest a structure. From the end 1920s, Jamini Roy rejected the European oil medium and began to use traditional pigments from vegetable and mineral sources. And the imagery was drawn from village life. He invested the peasants, artisans, followers of religious cults, village women and adivasis with immense dignity and represented in his paintings what they held sacred. He also painted from folk tales and narratives that permeated the rural consciousness. This sketch portrays a male and a female Santal dancer with the male figure playing drum with both his hands.